DBIx::DBH::Legacy is designed to facilitate and validate the process of creating DBI database connections. It's chief and unique contribution to this set of modules on CPAN is that it forms the DSN string for you, regardless of database driver. Another thing about this module is that it takes a flat Perl hash as input, making it ideal for converting HTTP form data and or config file information into DBI database handles. It also can form DSN strings for both major free databases and is subclassed to support extension for other databases.

DBIx::DBH::Legacy provides rigorous validation on the input parameters via Params::Validate. It does not allow parameters which are not defined by the DBI or the database driver driver into the hash.

It provides support for MySQL, Postgres and Sybase (thanks to Rachel Richard for the Sybase support).

you will notice that it requires the sub-components of the DSN. So, ideally you would be able to keep your connection data as a set of sub-components and supply it to Rose::DB but when you want to connect directly to DBI, you could do that also.

connect_data takes the same arguments as connect() but returns a list of the 4 arguments required by the DBIconnect() function. This is useful for working with modules that have an alternative connection syntax such as DBIx::AnyDBD or Alzabo.

form_dsn takes the same arguments as connect() but returns only the properly formatted DSN string. This is also useful for working with modules that have an alternative connection syntax such as DBIx::AnyDBD or Alzabo.

DBIx::Connector is an excellent module for reusing DBI database connections. This module should optionally connect to DBI via that instead of directly.

expose parm validation info:

>
> It would be nice if the parameter validation info was exposed in some
> way, so that an interactive piece of software can ask a user which
> driver they want, then query your module for a list of supported
> parameters, then ask the user to fill them in. (Perhaps move the hash
> of validation parameters to a new method named valid_params, and then
> have connect_data call that method and pass the return value to
> validate?)

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.4 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.